I checked in to Originalism to be greeted by a fairly smart looking blog. There were two, (yes, TWO!) title bar pictures, which threw me a bit, but they were nice pictures so I let it go and moved on. There is also a close up of the author staring out of the screen halfway down the side bar, which is a little unnerving to say the least.
This is a “Modblog” blog which is a system I have never come across before, so I am not sure how much of the site’s appearance to credit to the author and how much to the system itself. Having said that, the author is a programmer, so I figure he has done a lot of the work himself. Either way, the site looks great- has a nice colour scheme and the already referred to title pictures. There is also a photo album to be had, a memo board message type thing, a poll in the sidebar and various other bumph, which is presumably supplied as standard. My only gripe with the way the site is put together is that the archives can only be scrolled through 10 entries at a time. As the author only started blogging in July, it currently takes 30 seconds to find the beginning of the blog, but in time this could become a major pain in the arse. Also, the “About Me” page is not very revealing, but I could see the humour behind the terse information supplied.
With regards to the content, I can only really comment on the entries going back to 11th August as I became rather engrossed in what was written up until this point and I need to go to bed sometime tonight. It is safe to deduce from this that here is a prolific blogger, whose the entries are often quite verbose. Most entries are laced with photographs – some taken by the author, which are always tasteful and brighten things up somewhat. The writing style is one of those effortless, witty, intelligent styles which I seem to come across more and more in blogging and is absolutely made for casual browsing and having a laugh. Posts are pretty much along the lines of some personal stories, witty observations and random pop-philosophy. Some made me laugh out loud, some made me think, but to be honest there isn’t much of huge weight or depth here, beyond opinions for the sake of opinions. In fact halfway through I was left with a vague gnawing feeling of “what’s the point?” Yeah I know we are talking about blogs here and if we start requesting that they have a point in order to get a respectable review score then we may as well all pack up and go home. However, this blog seems more pointless than most somehow, beyond having a bit of a laugh and seeing a few pretty pics.
I would have given this blog a lower score befitting of the category “3.5 – Site is above average. Has a few perks, nothing too interesting that you can’t find elsewhere” but I bumped it up a notch because the author seems like a nice bloke, his entries are all of an affable nature and there is little to be offended by here. Not sure if it will hold the interest of many people outside of his blogging community though for long periods of time.
Originalism